The day book. (Chicago, Ill.) 1911-1917, May 22, 1913, Image 2

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I called attention at that time to w'aatj believed to b6 the real purposeof the sensationally advertised "crime trust."'When attorneys for Cunnea, Rinaker and Haight, the other candidatesfor state's attorney last year, applied to Judge Cooper for a special grandjury and state's attorney, Hoyne vigorously opposed anysuch action.Then, all of a sudden, he rushed into Judge Itersten's court and applied for a special grand jury and a special state's attorney .himself, and abosom friend of Hoyne was appointed special state's attorney. And by theway, the first thing this special state's attorney did was to get busy havingfees provided for himself.Of the subsequent moves the public is familiar.All along I had been proceeding on the assumption that Hoyne himselfwas not a party to any election frauds, and that while he might be- thebeneficiary of any fraud that might have been committed, still I did notbelieve he had anything to fear himself.I don't want to believe any such thing even now, despite his evidentdetermination to prevent any real investigation.However, that will all come out in the wash if there is any wash.In the meantime, I invite your attention to the fact that the awful"crime trust" has been shrinking daily, until now it has shrunk to a clairvoyant trust; and that most of the big newspaper promises of State's Attorney Hoyne, as to what he was going to do to rid Chicago of crime andcriminals, have petered out. .And the great Hearst newspaper mountain, after much labor, hasbrought forth nothing more deadly than a squeaky little mouse.In the meantime the other newspapers that foolishly fell for the "crimetrust" bunk because it made a "good story" have waked up and gone backto their election-fraud mutton.It isn't so easy for newspapers to fool the people as it used to be. Itisn't so easy for Big Business, through a kept press, to throw dustjn thepublic eye.The attempt to discredit the investigation of the Illinois Senate WelfareCommittee by attacikng the morality of Barratt O'Hara, helped along bysuch, newspaper publicity, has failed of its purpose.Now the "jackroller" and the "crime trust" sensations of papers friendlyto Hoyne have petered out, and public attention is being held to the factthat there is much ground for suspicion that outrageous erection fraudswere committed last fall. I don't believe the public will be fooled this timeeither, for I don't believe the people will stand for any whitewash on election frauds.If the people of Chicago can't have their votes counted as they werecast then democracy in Chicago is a delusion and a snare. And in my judgment there is no crime in Chicago or anywhere else more deadly in its effect than the fraudulent counting of votes at popular elections.There is much more at stake, than who shall be state's attorney ofCook county. The very liberty of the people is at stake.I want to suggest to judges that if the people have lost much of thefaith in courts they had been taught to have, the courts and the politiciansare responsible for itWhen a state's attorney will hurry before a judge to get a special grandjury and a special prosecutor when that very matter is before anotherjudge, the people's can't be blamed for having a suspicion that some judgesare expected to be .partial and partisan.i? 'afikfet v iS